Saturday, 28 July 2012

The
Haryana Stateadministration seems to have set wrong priorities in agricultural
sector so far as sowingof crops is concerned necessitating the officials to
ask for a hefty monetary package of `900
cr from the Central Government. The news items appeared in a section of the
press speaks of the melancholic environment in Haryana. With this huge sum of
money it intends to meet the expenditure incurred on purchasing expensive
electricity from NTPC and other companies in the private sector on the grounds
that most of the power is needed to save the basmati rice crop. It is
a familiar fact that the electricity to farming sector in Haryana is already
heavily subsidized thus putting additional burden on the urban people of the
state, which have hitherto honestly paid electricity bills and taxes. Helping
farmers by way of cheap and uninterrupted electric power supply for running of
pump sets and tube-wells, most of them submersibles, in tackling the ensuing
drought following scanty rainfall during this monsoon will not only put strain
on the ground water aquifers but also prove hazardous from environmental and
economic points of view.

The
native people of Haryana do not consume Basmati or other varieties of rice as
their principle diet but grow it as commercial crop for cash. The agencies of
the State Government and the traders procure the huge quantities from Mandis at
low prices, every year. The rice is processed at shellers that dot the skyline of
several northern districts of Haryana, particularly Yamunanagar, Kurukshetra
and Karnal. The traders/exporters neatly pack the rice, print a brand name on
the envelope and sell it in India and foreign marts earning huge profit in
which the share of the farmers is negligible.

Studies
done done by economists as well as environmental and nutrition scientists about
rice growing farmers in Haryana have only presented gloomy pictures, as he is
not even able to extract the labor charges for self maintain its traditional
diet that used to be rich in protein and minerals. Ninety five per cent of the
earnings go into paying for the costly fertilizers- despite the fact that the
item is subsidized, towards footing the bill for diesel or electric power required
to innundate the rice fields, taking the produce to one of the nearest Mandis,
paying handling charges in the Mandi or fees to traders for loading and
unloading etc. In connivance with the officials, the subsidy on fertilizers is
habitually cornered by the retailers and never passed on to the farmer. The
farmer is never able to fetch a good price for the produce.

The
supply of electricity or cheap diesel to the farmer for growing rice has
depleted the ground water aquifers to dangerous level in the State standing no
change for replenishment in near future. Its environmental cost is huge. As vast
areas covering rice fields in Haryana remain inundated for over two and a half
months, its measured impact on the rainfall is known to be devastating. The
evaporated water remains hung during the day and raise the level of humidity in
the atmosphere causing great discomfort to both the people as well as animals.
In order to avoid the oppressive heat caused due to sultry weather the people
opt for more cooling devices, preferably air conditioners in homes and work
place causing further demand on electric power and a drain on their family or
commercial income.

The
chain of reasons that may be responsible for the current phenomena of drought
can be connected directly to the growing rice in mostly the semi-arid regions
of Haryana. It is high time that the State governments of both the Punjab and
Haryana should listen carefully to the agricultural-environment scientists,
ICAR and ICRISAT and rigidly enforce a reversion to the old and time-tested,
more beneficial crops of millets –Jawar, Bajra and lintels for the Kharif
season.

It may take at least 25 years before the nature
recovers the qualities of the ruined land that has faced the tragedy of growing
rice on it. Studies conducted by the Hyderabad based National Institute of
Nutrition have established that coarse grains form more nutritious and
appropriate part of the diets of Indians than substituting it for shelled or
Basmati rice. It looks as if the State government officials were oblivious to
the better options and zealously pursued the agenda that seemed to favor more either
the rich or was politically correct. In fact, the Central Government should promptly
refuse the drought-fighting packages received from the States unless they assure
of resuming farming practices fit for the rain-fed arid or semi-arid
agricultural zones within next three years.

I
think we are making the issue more complex. The purpose of holding the
conclave was to put across a message that female foeticide will be
intolerable henceforth and that the Headmen of various Khaaps approve of
it. They provided sort of social sanction to it. This type of sanction
is necessary to move the spirit forward. It is for the social
scientists, medical doctors, bio-scientists, geneticists,
administrators, educationalist, publishers, authors and, of course,
politicians to see how to push this agenda for the future so that a
social evil prevalent for long in Haryana and that changed the
demographic character can be controlled and people begin to take the
birth of a girl child in healthy spirit. Society can only move forward
with the presence of women in adequate numbers. They are the key to
survival of human race. Everyone understands this. But when it became
technologically possible to determine the sex of foetus, the un- or
undereducated, illiterate folks started taken advantage for illegally
removing the female foeticide. Its bad impact was soon felt and it were
they village communities now that understood the disadvantage and moved
in a direction to take them to secure a better future's by holding the
Mahapanchayat. The Khaap Headmen -without detailed discussion and
scholarly comments, understand what course of action is needed
henceforth. The social, technological and medical issues can be taken up
for discussion by other agencies by involving Khaaps. Two great things
happened on the 14th of July : Moving in a positive direction and
registering the event at the level of the State Administration at the
highest-ranking level that was quick to announce a hefty reward of Rs. 1
crore to the Bibipur Panchayat. The rewarding of Panchayat will haven
great impact on this movement to save the girl Child. Our countrymen
must take notice of the benevolence of the CM of Haryana who saw an
opportunity on this occasion to make good contribution. We appreciate
his motive.

The Tribune report published on 17 July
2012 -'Foeticide goes unrecorded in Haryana' is an eye opener for both
policy planners as well as demographers and also significant for social
activists, critiques and the Khaap Headmen to take note of. The
incidents like female foeticide goes unreported/unrecorded is because it
is kept as a highly guarded secret in the community with the connivance
of the ladies of the household as well as neighborhood. Nobody comes
forward to report the pre-term disappearance of pregnancy even after the
fact comes to the notice of many. How the Sarpanch of the villagers and
whistle blowers, the activists and the medical service providers will
do it is yet to be seen. The blowing of lid will require great courage
and the whistle blowers face immense risk to their own life. Social
repercussions for the whistle blowers will be harder to face. There is
no legal relief to those blow the lid is blown. The whole social fabric
is so thickly woven that any sort of transparency is impossible to
attain. Unless the women of the household areas properly educated and
empowered by the menfolk nothing concrete is expected to come out. Until
then, the condition of the women in rural Haryana will continue to be
down.

Three recent news reports (uploaded as images here) are
worth taking notice:entitled as -'Here's the proof: Women more
intelligent than men', 'Village vows to let girls live' & 'Child
marriages: India acts mature' all appeared in The Times of India on 17
July 2012 and that too in the National Edition published from Delhi.
Looking at these news items and carefully going through the content may
be interpreted in a positive way by right thinking people, particularly
those that are associated with women and child issues. They are also of
great use to researchers that do research on various Khaap activities
termed nefarious and anti-women. Marrying a girl before she comes of age
and becomes capable in rearing children is a sure sign of backwardness.
In Haryana people have long ago realized that the betrothal should not
be done unless the married child (even if at an immature age) should not
be done unless she attains the age of 18 yrs. Secondly, if the women
have proven to be more intelligent than men we have been committing a
great crime by aborting the female foetuses because by adopting this
attitude we have been eliminating the number of intelligent human being
from our society and thereby hurting the progress of society. Thirdly,
Anahita Mukherji has done a commendable job in visiting Bibipur and
talking to cross section of people -mostly women and Mr. Sunil Jaglan,
the active Sarpanch of the village. Her report is worth appreciating
that reflects a change of attitude of the media persons that operate on
national level.

Following update is added

My article “Simmering Identity Crisis at Khaps”
published in the Tribune dated July 27, 2012 has eminently served its purpose.
It has aroused a lot of interest and controversy among the thinking beings. It
has invited comments from many friends on Face Book. One July 27, my telephone
constantly remained busy from early in the morning till late at night.The next
morning also I received a number of calls. Almost all the callers were
appreciative and largely agreed with my analysis.

On 27th I received a call at about 11 AM from some Yes Pal Malik. First of all,
I could not place him properly. Then suddenly it dawned on me that the caller
was from western U.P. and President of All India Jat Aarashan Samiti. I never
had the chance of meeting the gentleman face to face.

My article dealt with the Bibipur khap panchayat conclave held in Haryana and
another panchayat meeting near Baghpat in western U.P. which had put several
restrictions on women below 40 years of age- not going to the market alone, ban
on use of mobile etc. to save them from eve teasing. Mr. Malik complained that
I, being a Jat, had maligned the Jat community in my article. He elaborated
that there was no fatwa or firman, but only a suggestion to save women from eve
teasers. I argued that whatever be the nomenclature, it was a decision to
penalize the victims and letting the wrong doers go scott free. A panchayat
worth its name should haul up the anti social elements, hand them over to the
police or approach their families to apply a check on them, failing which such
families should be socially boycotted- hukka pani bandh- an age old tradition
in the khap panchayat. There was no justification for confining women to the household
to save them from eve teasers. Then he harangued on paramparas- traditions ,
conventions and all that. I stuck to my guns.This continued for more than half
an hour.

At this point Mr. Malik got exasperated and blurted out that there was a
conspiracy by the media and some politicians to defame the Jats and their
leaders. He insinuated that Hooda(CM, Haryana) must have given me ten -twenty
thousand rupees to write this article.

At this juncture, I lost my temper and got infuriated. I always avoid getting
angry. Anger is a destructive emotion which harms you more than the target of
your anger. However, I could not restrain myself. I asked him not to utter this
kind of non sense without knowing the background of the man in question. I
retorted that every body was not a saleable commodity in society. As a Member
and Chairman, Haryana Public Service Commission, I made recruitment for a
number of years and many officers were recruited during my tenure. I challenged
Mr. Malik to produce a single individual who could state that he/she had paid
me even a single paisa for my help. Then I further retorted that while
analyzing a situation I did not spare anybody. Even in my article in question I
have referred to official correspondence which put Hooda govt. in poor light. I
am always guided by Socrates’ concept of an intellectual as a gad fly who
shakes the people out of complacence without caring for the consequences. I
told Mr. Malik that I never thought that he was a man of such low level, it was
beneath my dignity to talk to such a man, and I switched off my mobile.

I know that people like Mr. Malik come down to character assassination when
they have no logical argument to support their contention. Some friends have
advised me that I should avoid getting into arguments with such people by using
the alibi of being busy in a meeting or some such thing. I find two
difficulties in following this advice. First, reluctance to talk on my part
would smack of arrogance. Secondly, the supporters of traditional panchayat
system and their critics seem to be in two enemy camps arrayed against each
other and there is no communication between the two. My feeling is that there
are some well-meaning people in both the camps, though their world views might
differ. Door must be kept open for dialogue and at some stage some common
ground on some issues might be found.

Bravo! Sir. You
aptly educated Mr. Malik -self-styled leader of the Jats, having gained no
ground anywhere in village communities of Haryana. He is said to have huge
stocks of ill-gotten money and have been brain washing the innocents in the...
name of securing reservations for the Jats of Haryana. He was also charged with
instigating the mobs at Mayyar village to take to arson and violence in which
both private and public properties were damaged. Your reply needed the kind of
firmness you depicted while speaking to him, which is viewed as a conduct above
board. We have always recognized you as an upright person and a superb
intellectual. Thanks for sharing the contents of the conversation with friends.

About Me

I am a cultural historian and looking for dedicated friends who work in documenting the cultural heritage of India both tangible and intangible. I am life member of INTACH, Science writer, author, contributor, frequent traveller, photographer, lecturer, friendly, sharp minded, caring and physically robust. Likes simple, traditional Indian food and company of young, energetic and absultely nationalistic people.